WEDNESDAY HODGEPODGE

Wow! Wednesday creeps up before you know it, doesn't it?  Thanks once again, Joyce, for the interesting questions.  Joyce's Wednesday Hodgepodge is open to all so if you're inclined, head on over by clicking on the badge above.  You will enjoy it, I promise!

1. National Read a Road Map Day falls on April 5th. Would people say you have a good sense of direction? Do you rely on a GPS when you drive somewhere new? When was the last time you used a map?

Ha!  Good one, Joyce.  I am so directionally challenged, I get lost in my own closet!I LOVE GPS, but curiously I also love to collect and display maps. We travel a lot and we like to collect maps of our destinations. We have a world map in the study that we use to pin point the different locations we've traveled. 
The last time I used a map was yesterday on Google Maps, an app on my i-phone that I rely on to guide me throughout Munich. I couldn't do without it.


2. What's your favorite cookbook?
Believe it or not, my favorite cook book is one I bought at Disney World.  It is called, "From the Lands of Figs and Olives," by Habeeb Salloum and James Peters. It has over 300 delicious and unusual recipes from the Middle East and North Africa.  My favorite dishes are from the Middle East and we love the recipes we have tried.

3. What painting would you like to "walk into" and experience? Why?
Joyce, this is a most intriguing question!  I am instantly drawn to any of Gauguin's paintings so that is the one I chose.  I would love to actually see the world as the French Impressionist painters did.  Blue trees, pink skies, and yellow clouds would be my preferred way of seeing the world, without the use of any hallucinogenic drugs, that is.

4. What annoys you more- misspellings or mispronunciations?
Neither, I try not to judge; one of the professional hazards of having been an English teacher, I guess, *sigh*. 

5. What is something your mother or father considered important?

That loving someone is a choice you make each day.

6. Do you like or dislike schedules?

I HATE schedules and have great disdain for people who swear by them.  People who make lists and try to plan life just plain annoy me.  Life is meant to be lived and flexibility is an attribute that is far too underrated, in my opinion.  I try to avoid people who feel they need to control everyone's life with obnoxious schedules, calendars, and lists.  Get over it already!  As a result, I attend what is convenient for me or I forgo it.  It works for me.

7. Let's have some fun with National Poetry Month (that would be April)...write your own ending to this poem-

"Roses are Red

Violets are blue..."
I've thought too hard about this.
How about you?

Incidentally if you'd like to read the history behind that little ditty you'll find it here.

8. Insert your own random thought in this space.
Getting older is nice in some ways....

PASSION

Lately, I've been giving some serious thought to this question, "What is your passion?"

Image via Wikipedia

Being recently retired, I have heaps of time to devote to my "passion." I'm passionate about travel and I've managed to visit many countries over the past ten years. I've graduated from enjoying large cities to wanting to experience more remote locations. I've moved from the tried and true tourist spots to digging deeper and finding hidden gems; places that only the locals know about. We have been so far off the beaten track that we have never wanted to return to it. The deeper one goes, the greater the experience, we believe. It isn't necessary to travel great distances to find locations such as these. But it does require, to some degree, going where others fear to go. Taking the longer way, the way less traveled. As Robert Frost said, "And that has made all the difference."
I would say that along with travel is sport. I'm particularly
passionate about golf. If I had my way, we would be sitting pretty on on

Image by lotusutol via Flickr

e of the countries' premeire golf courses and spending our days chasing that elusive perfect score. But, back to reality. My husband has introduced me to biking, and although I'm still struggling with the finer aspects of manuevering the darn thing, I have to acknowledge that it has taken me places that I never would have seen had I not been on the seat of a bike. (And the bottom of the lake does not count!)
One of my new passions is drawing great chuckl es and jokes from my two sons--crocheting and knitting. They somehow find the idea of their mother becoming crafty just too grandmotherly and are trying to shame me out of continuing. Too late, I'm hooked. (no pun intended).
Having a degree in Art is no guarantee that you'll be an artist, but now that the kids are grown, I'm retired, and money for supplies is not an object, I've begun to dabble in oils, watercolors, and sketching. My real passion has always been clay sculpture. So, I foresee a studio in my near future and a kiln to fire the objects that I'm working in my head and sketching at the moment. I'm also planning to invest in a potters' wheel for throwing bowls, cups, plates, and any other kind of vase or pot that strikes my fancy.
Being in Europe has opened a whole new opportunity for my creative juices. I see promise in following the culinary arts of some of the countries we've visited. I've already perfected the sopska salad we so enjoyed in Bulgaria, to my amazement. I'm anxious to join the e

Image by Bobcatnorth via Flickr

xpats in the German Cooking Challenge and give my hand at some of the interesting recipes posted each month. Then, I'm keen to try cake decorating and I'll be inquiring at the local community center for lessons in this skill.
Lets see, there is skiing, alpine walking, yoga, pilates, and cross country skiing. There is German Language lessons, book club, and theater. I could go on and on and that is the problem. Where does one find the time to follow every passion? While I'm going to try them all, I'm sure that some will strike my fancy more than others. But what a wonderful time in your life to try all that you've been wanting to try! I have to tell you, I am loving life!

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Mr. Fixit was Here Today

Here's Mike hanging a light fixture in

Steve's study. He arrived at 8:30 am this morning and worked constantly installing heaps of lighting fixtures. This one (once the cardboard was removed) will allow us to have light in many areas of the room.

I called Mike from Huntcrest Co. who could not only install 6 ceiling light fixtures and hang 8 over sized paintings today, but said he would come back to hang four more light fixtures and rewire six lamps for me next week. This is wonderful and his rates are very reasonable. I highly recommend them as their work is impeccable and they are very professional. (Plus, he said he could tell our paintings weren't from Ikea!) He took extra special care of all of our belongings.

Below is a photo of our new light fixture in the dining room. It matches a couple of lamps we have for the living room end tables. I'm addicted to the crystals though--I have to stop, or soon I will have Steve's bedroom slippers trimmed in crystal. Actually, he might like that--just kidding.

We chose this light fixture in the photo below for the stairwell to the second floor. It is going to look great at night. No more sneaking around at night with a torch for a drink of water. We're back in the 21st Century!

The place is now looking more like a home. Our paintings from Bali have been hung, our Australian Aboriginal paintings, Steve's painting of the Silk Road, and our Chinese panels have all found a home here. It has occurred to me that these objects have all magically found a home in three countries in the last five years. I find it amazing that they all fit and we were able to use each one.

The next photo was a surprise. I opened a box and this gem was inside. I must have bought it in Shanghai right before our exit move. I have never had it out and I was so excited to find a place to display it. I bought it in Shanghai at Xintandi at an art dealer's shop. The artist had painted various different scenes on rocks. I love the one shown below. It is simple, yet elegant.

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Even Steve's favorite stuffed animal, "Buddy" made the trip. He has found his home on the window sill right in front of Steve's work desk. I asked Steve why he wanted to take Buddy along with us to Germany and his answer was, "Because he makes me happy!"

That's my hubby, a man of very few needs and who is sincerely happy with the "little things" in life. Just one more reason why I love him. Plus, Buddy doesn't eat anything and he never complains about his perch over Steve's desk; what's not to like?

Totally unrelated to our "Mr. Fixit" day is the following. I found a suspicious video on You Tube today. It appears that the Swine Flu Pandemic, that has had us all shivering in our boots, was here before........ in 1976!

Take a look for yourself and let me know if you think we haven't all over-reacted and are all a bunch of scardey cats. Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASibLqwVbsk